Who is IT NZ: Delia Gill

Loving your job so much you buy the company, is a rare occurrence. Delia Gill from IT Engine, did just that. She’s worked her way up from an administrator role, to general manager and is now the owner of Wellington IT services company, IT Engine.

Who is IT NZ is a feature of What is IT NZ that we talked about in an earlier post. We’ll meet you for coffee, ask you a version of the Proust Questionnaire and just hang out and have a nice time. Afterwards you introduce us to someone else so the chain keeps going.

My role is Managing Director. I do a lot of organising, I support my staff because it is a stressful environment, I look after them, I mother them – and I do the same to our clients.

What’s your two sentence elevator pitch for your business?

I don’t have an elevator pitch, but if I had to say something, I’d say IT Engine makes other people’s IT work really well. We support businesses and organisations with the very best, and passionate staff.

What’s your favourite virtue?

Integrity. Because I think that’s what everything stands on. Integrity means you have respect for other people, you’re honest with other people, and if you’ve got integrity, all of those things fall out of it.

What do you look for in a friend?

Honesty. Basically, if they can sit there and be honest and up front with me, then that’s the qualifier. All of my friends are very honest with me and probably just as blunt as me, too.

What’s your dominant characteristic?

My bossiness.

What’s your biggest flaw?

My temper. When it gets going I have a stonker! It hardly ever erupts, but you can ask my team, on the rare occasion it happens, when they think I’m seeing red, they run for the hills.

What’s your favourite occupation?

Too many! There’s a lot I admire about different occupations. Like Architects for what they can do and create. Nurses – self explanatory. Painters, because they get to do what they want to do. Although when I was a kid I wanted to be a ballerina, but unfortunately my coordination is not good. A teacher once wrote in my school report “One of these days Delia’s arms will keep up with her legs”.

What’s your favourite idea of happiness?

Hanging out with people. I’m a talker. So hanging out with people, my kids, my husband, you two – this is my idea of a good time.

What’s your idea of misery?

What’s happening in Syria is misery. When people are trapped and they can’t get out and they can’t do anything about their situation. But it’s happening here too. Not on the same scale of course, but there are people trapped here in places and situations that they can’t get themselves out of and it’s hard going. I feel really bad for them.

If you weren’t you, who would you like to be?

I’d probably want to be the Dalai Lama. I think he’s had a really cool life. Yes he’s had some problems – he can’t go back to his homeland. But his mind is fascinating. He’s just so cool, and he gets to travel around and meet all these amazing people.

Where do you wish you could live?

I’d like to live in Japan, and Paris, and I love Melbourne. One of them.

What’s your favourite colour and your favourite flower?

Bright canary yellow. I can’t wear it as it makes me look sick, but I’m drawn to things that are that colour. I don’t have a favourite flower. I like daisies, but no favourite flower.

Who is your favourite character in fiction?

Lara Croft. Because she has everything, she’s sexy as hell and she can beat the shit out of anybody. That’s me.

What is your favourite swear word?

Bollocks. You can really get your teeth into the word bollocks, and you can say bollocks without offending too many people.

If you’d like to take part in Who is IT NZ, fill out the form below and we’ll be in touch.